Something Old Something New in S Scale?

Today saw the arrival of two Ma & Pa kits for engines 41 & 43 made by BTS.  I had these kits previously and sold them with much regret but now I have another set.  These two kits are in S Scale and are just magnificent.  Perhaps someday I will find one or two of the engine 42 kits.  One would be to build engine 42 and a second would be to build an early 43.  If I had my druthers I would model in S Scale which takes just about a third more space than HO but the heft perception seems more significant.    Unfortunately, there is almost nothing available for Ma & Pa in S Scale besides these engines.  I can hear Andrew Dodge of Colorado Midland fame say that this would not be a problem as I could just build all the necessary engines and cars.  Andrew is right but am I willing to pay ayhe price and will the layout fit in S not just in HO.

Why 1914 -1924?

The choice of era is deterministic for many things that follow.  Bernie Kempinski and Tony Koester have written on choosing a particular era and how that changes locomotive selection, car types, schedule and number of trains, operating practices and feel of the road.  The lower year of 1914 seemed to make sense since by that time the Ma & Pa had all but one of their steam locomotives and passenger cars.  The upper year of 1924 was the last year before the arrival of the Gas-Electric units.

I will need to narrow this down further to a specific year.  The need to be in a particular year would help keep focus while dealing with the timetable changes that came several times during this decade.

Background Photo

The background photo on the blog page is from recently departed friend Bill McMillan's Ma & Pa layout.  I always enjoyed talking Ma & Pa with Bill who was past President of the Historical Society.  Bill was always an inspiration and a fountain of information.  He is sorely missed and my hope is that this layout can live up to the high standard he set for modeling the Ma & Pa.

New Project New Blog

This new blog will chronicle my building an HO scale layout of the Ma & Pa RR in the Teens and 1920s with a focus on the decade of 1914 to 1924.  The reasons behind this switch are several and some of which I will only feel comfortable discussing further down the road.

The first one is the analysis paralysis which has griped my modeling for the last several years.  I could never cross the Ts and dot the Is enough to pass the comfort level to build a permanent layout set in the American Civil War era.  Since the American Civil War layout was not meeting my standards with a prototype it was time to move to a prototype and scale combination that I know would be able to meet those standards.  To that end I am now moving ahead with the Ma & Pa project that has been on my list but was always going to be done later.  So later is now here.

I want to say thanks to all those in the ACW community who listened and helped with my questions.  My interest in that era will not end as no one who is a Historian at their core being will ever give up learning about areas that interest them.

Time to move forward!